Friday, April 17, 2009

Celadon exhibitions in Taipei's museums

This week, I visited the National Museum of History in Taipei. It features an exhibition of Celadon in ancient Korea until April 26.

If you can't make it in time, I recommend the Palace Museum's Green: Longquan Celadon of the Ming dynasty. The collection is breathtaking. These antique objects have such grace, their colors are so vivid and natural. It is even possible to touch a (broken) piece of celadon. Their texture is soft despite being thick. Amazing. (At least click on the link for a virtual tour. Until October 15, 2009)

5 comments:

I wish I could make it to Taiwan for this exhibition. I have been wanting to buy that book "Empty Vessels..." for awhile, but i balked at the price. Can I ask how much it cost in Taiwan? It is $85 in the US and a couple dollars cheaper in Mainland China. How was the book? Was it worth it? Thanks a lot!

LaoChaGui,It costs 1450 NTD in Taiwan. If your focus is on (Yixing) teapots, then I think I'd recommend the book I showed on December 29, 2008, which costs only 380 NTD. This 'Empty vessels' book is more interesting to get an historical perspective on tea culture in China. There are many old paintings showing people making tea in different dynasties. All main titles are translated into english, but one would wish they had translated the complete text.The advantage with books from the NPM, is that these are genuine and high quality artefacts, because they come from the imperial 'vault'. And since every picture is tea related, I find it really worth it.

At the Art Institute of Chicago, there is an extraordinary exhibit of Chinese and Korean ceramics, including a lot of gloriously beautiful celadon. Whenever I go there, I have to spend time, just drinking in that color.